Paper Astrolabe
In the back of a manuscript collection of astronomical texts, which includes one of Abraham Ibn Ezra’s works on the use of the astrolabe (a tool for astronomical calculations), is a set of crude but generally accurate drawings of various parts of an astrolabe, glued into the codex. In a pinch, astrolabes could be constructed from paper, and it is conceivable that these were initially made for use but then pasted into the manuscript. This picture shows the back of the mater, or disk.
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Credits
Courtesy the Russian State Library, Moscow, Ms. Guenzburg 274.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.
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Related Guide
Early Modern Visual and Material Culture
1500–1750
Early modern Jewish visual culture flourished, with illuminated manuscripts, ornate synagogues, and portraiture alongside increasing non-Jewish interest in Jewish customs and greater Jewish self-representation.
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This ketubah was written and illustrated for the wedding of Isaac Pereira and Rachel de Pinto, members of prominent Sephardic families. At the top a pair of hands clasp, and vignettes along the sides…
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This broadsheet is based on a famous model of the Temple in Jerusalem, owned by Jacob Judah Leon, a rabbi from the Netherlands. Probably produced in Amsterdam, the poster includes illustrations of the…
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